Overkill: If You Want to Stop Gun Violence, Start With Bullets

Over-
kill

AMERICA IS AWASH IN AMMUNITION. IF YOU WANT TO STOP GUN VIOLENCE, START WITH BULLETS
By JOANNA PEARLSTEIN

Guns don’t kill people;people don’t kill people;bullets kill people. As the nation debates, again, the best way to curb gun violence,many of the questions focus on the firearms themselves. But an equally important consideration is ammunition. Roughly 10 billion rounds are manufactured in the US each year, with a weight equal to two Titanics. More to the point, it’s enough bullets to pump 32 rounds into every man, woman, and child in America.

From the musket ball to the .45 Colt cartridge to the .223 shells used in the Newtown massacre, the story of ammunition is in many ways a familiar tale of technological progress, as bullets have become cheaper, easier to use, and often more deadly. But this engineeringsuccess has become a social and moral crisis. Here’s a data-driven examination of the bullet: its variety, its spread, and the policies that might help curb its lethal consequences.

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9mm Luger

Nearly twice as many 9mm Luger cartridges are manufactured as any other single caliber. Perhaps not surprisingly, the 9mm also kills more law enforcement officers than any other bullet.

7.62x39mm

Introduced in 1943, this is the world’s most popular bullet for assault rifles and a go-to cartridge for the AK-47. Between 2002 and 2011, the 7.62x39mm bullet killed more law enforcement officers wearing body armor than any other caliber.

.40 S&W

When the FBI decided that its 10mm ammunition produced too much recoil, Smith &Wesson developed this caliber as a replacement in 1990. It’s a perennially popular round for buyers seeking “personal defense.”

.223 Remington

The assault rifles used in mass shootings in Newtown, Connecticut, and Aurora, Colorado, were loaded with .223 cartridges. As with most bullet types, hundreds of .223 choices are available;Cheaperthandirt.com, for example, sells 172 kinds that vary by weight, muzzle velocity, and form factor (e.g., full metal jacket, soft-point, jacketed hollow point).

12 Gauge

One of the firearms used in the Aurora movie theater shooting last year was a 12-gauge shotgun made by Remington. A similar weapon was used in the mass shooting at Columbine High School in 1999.

.50 BMG

A standard caliber for machine guns, the .50-caliber Browning was also one of the bullets that the Branch Davidians shot at FBI agents during a siege on their compound in 1993.

America the Ammo Dealer
(and Buyer)

Our immense appetite for bullets—and expertise in producing them—drives the entire global market, in which the US is the biggest importer and exporter. Between 2005 and 2009 alone, US imports quadrupled, in large part because the military, waging wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, was sapping domestic production. This map shows official US exports from, and imports to, its top 10 partners in bullet sales. Unofficially, US bullets also find their way into bloodshed from Mexico (via smuggling to cartels) to Norway (where mass murderer Anders Breivik ordered his online from a US seller).

Click the arrows to move through the infographic. Hover over a hotspot to learn more.
Illustrations: Carl DeTorres